from the rock-and-a-hard-place dept

So we've talked a lot over the years about how few people expected much from FCC boss Tom Wheeler, given his history lobbying for the wireless and cable industries. But amazingly enough, Wheeler wound up being one of the most consumer, small business, and competition-friendly bosses in FCC history (not that this is saying much). He passed net neutrality rules, new broadband privacy protections, raised the definition of broadband to 25 Mbps (to highlight a lack of competition at higher speeds), and more. In short, he wasn't the dingo many thought him to be.

This puts Wheeler in a notably prickly predicament. Wheeler's term technically extends until 2018, but under FCC rules he would be downgraded from Chairman to just vanilla commissioner should he stay on. If Wheeler leaves, the current FCC would face an immediate 2-1 Republican advantage. If he stays, the FCC remains with an even partisan 2-2 split, with Wheeler and Mignon Clyburn on one side, and Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly on the other -- at least until a new FCC boss is appointed to round out the five-person FCC leadership.

Senate confirmation could take a large chunk of 2017, delaying any substantive policy changes. But if Wheeler chooses to leave, the 2-1 voting advantage would allow those looking to eliminate net neutrality and other recent FCC initiatives a running head start. Wheeler's predicament is thanks, in part, to the GOP refusing to renew current FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to another term, something leaders originally promised they'd do -- then backed away from realizing they might have an advantage. Wheeler tried to force the issue last week when he said he'd resign immediately if Rosenworcel was reappointed to a new term.

"Republicans previously said they would not reconfirm Rosenworcel unless Wheeler resigned, because one Democrat must exit the FCC to let President-elect Donald Trump appoint a new Republican and give his party a 3-2 majority. But by the time Wheeler promised to do so, Republicans had other ideas. There wasn't enough time left in the Senate's session to handle Rosenworcel's confirmation, Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) said. Other Republicans supported taking no action on Rosenworcel because they hope both she and Wheeler will leave and give Republicans an immediate 2-1 majority."

In an ideal world, partisan pattycake wouldn't dictate important technological issues of the age. Especially since issues like net neutrality actually have broad bipartisan support, and are only shoehorned into the mold of partisan politics because they operate in a dysfunctional vacuum. Ensuring that there's broadband competition (and by proxy cheaper, better service) enjoys similar bipartisan support among consumers. As does not letting incumbent ISPs write harmful protectionist state legislation solely to protect incumbent revenues from competition.

None of this is probably a particularly enjoyable position for the 70-year-old Wheeler to inhabit. Instead of enjoying his retirement, Wheeler faces being forced to stick around if he doesn't want four years of hard work dismantled. And even if he does stick around, he'll inevitably find himself at the mercy of a 3-2 minority position anyway, one where he'll spend four years losing an endless series of 3-2 votes that carefully chip away at everything he fought for. In short, the recovering dingo is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't -- music to the ears of those looking to strip away neutrality and other consumer protections.

from the patriotic-price-gouging dept

Journalists and citizens attending this week's Presidential debate at Hofstra Univserity found themselves facing an unexpected surprise when they were informed that WiFi at the event would cost them $200. Worse, perhaps, was that attendees said that the college was going around using this $2,000 WiFi signal detector to identify those using their smartphone as a mobile hotspot, and encouraging them to instead shell out the big bucks for a few hours of Hofstra WiFi:

Several times over the last few years, the FCC has fined hotel and conference center companies for willfully blocking users' hotspots from working, forcing them to shell out exorbinant rates for conference center WiFi. The crackdown began with Marriott in 2014, which initially tried to fight the fine before realizing it was outnumbered by regulators, annoyed consumers, and even companies like Microsoft. The FCC subsequently fined Hilton for similar behavior, as well as for actively obstructing the FCC's investigation into what Hilton was doing. Several smaller conference center WiFi companies have been fined by the FCC as well.

The difference in this instance is that Hofstra wasn't actively jamming personal hotspots in the same way conference centers have. And when pressed for comment, Hofstra representatives laid the blame for the $200 price tag at the feet of the Commission on Presidential Debates. They also claim they worked to shoot down people's personal hotspots out of fear that they might cause interference with the existing network:

"The Commission on Presidential Debates sets the criteria for services and requires that a completely separate network from the University’s network be built to support the media and journalists. This is necessary due to the volume of Wi-Fi activity and the need to avoid interference. The Rate Card fee of $200 for Wi-Fi access is to help defray the costs and the charge for the service does not cover the cost of the buildout.

For Wi-Fi to perform optimally the system must be tuned with each access point and antenna. When other Wi-Fi access points are placed within the environment the result is poorer service for all. To avoid unauthorized access points that could interfere, anyone who has a device that emits RF frequency must register the device. Whenever a RF-emitting device was located, the technician notified the individual to visit the RF desk located in the Hall. The CPD RF engineer would determine if the device could broadcast without interference."

While interference is certainly real, it's not particularly likely that a user's personal tethered hotspot would grind the Hofstra network to a halt if properly designed. Regardless, Rosenworcel says she has urged the FCC Enforcement Bureau to take a closer look at whether debate staffers went too far. Regardless of the outcome, Rosenworcel is probably happy to have her name in print for something other than her failure to support the FCC's quest for cable box competition, a position fueled largely by inaccurate claims by the US Copyright Office.

from the $21-billion-reasons-to-fold dept

The cable industry's relentless lobbying assault on the FCC's plan to bring competition to the cable box appears to be working. As we've been covering, cable lobbyists have been filling editorial sections nationwide with all manner of misleading dreck, claiming the FCC's plan (which you can read here (pdf)) will increase piracy, hinder innovation, hurt minorities, and rip giant holes in the time-space continuum. They've also engaged in the time-honored tradition of paying lawmakers that have no idea how technology works to make all manner of false claims about what the FCC's plan actually does.

Unfortunately for those of you tired of paying the cable industry $21 billion annually to rent a shitty cable box, it looks like the efforts are working.

Two of the Democratic Commissioners that originally voted yes on the plan say they're starting to get cold feet, surely only coincidentally after the cable industry decided to ramp up lobbying to levels not seen since 2009 to try and kill the plan. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, for example, is now claiming that the FCC plan she voted for is "too complicated" and that the FCC should compromise with the cable industry on some kind of new arrangement:

"Kudos to the chairman for kicking off this conversation [Rosenworcel voted along with Wheeler and Democrat Mignon Clyburn to kick off that conversation], but it has become clear the original proposal has real flaws and, as I have suggested before, is too complicated. We need to find another way forward."
She was not endorsing the cable effort, but instead appeared to be supporting the effort to find a compromise proposal that addresses the flaws.
"I am glad that efforts are underway to hash out alternatives that provide consumers with more choice and more competition at lower cost."

Except there's nothing really that complicated or "flawed" about what the FCC is proposing. Under the plan, cable operators simply have to provide access to their programming -- using systems and copy protection of their choice -- to third-party hardware vendors without the need for a cable card. While there's certainly some engineering challenges with the idea, the "complicated" part only really comes from the cable industry's decision to fight cable box competition tooth and nail.

Meanwhile, the "compromise" referenced by the article that appears to have swayed Rosenworcel isn't much of one. Instead of real cable box competition, the cable industry has proposed a plan whereby they simply have to deliver their programming via app -- but consumers would still have to pay for a cable box if they want to do things like record via DVR. Consumer advocates and groups like INCOMPAS are warning that the cable industry will go out of is way in any voluntary proposal to find creative ways to continue forcing consumers to use their hardware and services.

"We also asked Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's office if she still supports the original proposal and got this response: "Commissioner Clyburn appreciates and welcomes the constructive ‎efforts by industry to put forward an alternative apps-based proposal. She continues to study the proposal with an eye towards a solution that adheres to Section 629 of the Communications Act; ensures truly competitive choice; enhances access to diverse programming; and provides the protections for copyright, security and privacy that consumers have come to expect."

Note again that the two waffling commissioners don't really provide any solid reasons why the FCC's original proposal couldn't work, but it's pretty clear that they've been influenced -- to one degree or another -- by the paid sound wall cable lobbyists have constructed in trying to scuttle real cable box competition. With their fellow Commissioners Pai and O'Rielly voting no on the proposal (because voting no on consumer friendly policies is their entire purpose in life) and foundering support among Democratic commissioners, Wheeler won't have the political firepower to get the plan approved.

Again that's not the end of the world. The legacy cable TV industry's empire is slowly crumbling with or without the FCC's help, it will just take a little longer if the FCC doesn't give the entire process a swift kick in the ass. If the FCC's cable box proposal sinks, the agency has more time and calories to focus on what's truly going to be important in the new streaming TV age: bringing real, sustained competition to bear on the broken U.S. broadband market.

from the think-this-through dept

So last night we wrote about over 100 internet companies asking Tom Wheeler, to rethink his plans for his open internet "net neutrality" rule making -- warning that proposed rules that harm an open internet would be a very bad thing. In that post, we mentioned that FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel had asked Tom Wheeler to delay his plan to push forward with the rulemaking, but that Wheeler intended to move forward anyway. This morning, the pile-on against Wheeler continued, starting with a fantastic letter from over 50 venture capitalists who invest in the internet space, warning what bad rules will do to innovation and the economy (a letter they put together in less than a day).

And then another FCC commissioner, Ajit Pai, also asked Wheeler to hold off and not offer up his open internet rules at the meeting next week. It would be big in general to see two FCC commissioners directly asking the FCC chair to hold off, but it's especially noteworthy that it's Pai and Rosenworcel doing this -- as they tend to come at things from the opposite end of the spectrum (FCC-ish pun not intended). Pai is a Republican commissioner and Rosenworcel is a Democratic one -- and they generally don't agree on much, policy wise. In fact, it's unlikely they agree on why these rules should be stalled -- but at least they both realize that rushing forward with half-baked rules are a serious problem.

For about a decade now, I've argued that one of the reasons why net neutrality became a "toxic" issue was because it became a partisan issue. In the early days it wasn't, but somewhere in the mid-2000s, it suddenly became a "Democratic" issue, and Republicans started attacking it. And that just killed any rational discussion about keeping an open internet. Perhaps, now that the issue is finally getting renewed attention, we can get passed partisan bickering and focus on making sure that the internet actually remains open, with greater competition, and continued freedom to innovate.

from the don't-fail-us-fcc dept

As the net neutrality debate has kicked into overdrive, over 100 internet companies -- including most of the big names such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon, Ebay, Reddit, Automattic, Yahoo, Kickstarter, as well as many smaller names, such as us here at Floor64/Techdirt -- have all signed onto a letter to the FCC asking it to actually suck it up and protect the open internet. Consider this a warning shot to the FCC from the internet community. The community knows what's at stake in this fight and it's watching closely what the FCC does. Having helped to get some of the companies to sign on, I can say that many leaders at companies are both very informed on the topic, and very engaged about it. If the FCC thinks it can sneak one by the tech community, that may be more difficult than it expects.

Along those lines, one FCC commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, has suggested that the FCC should put the brakes on its net neutrality plans to think things through a bit more carefully -- though apparently FCC boss Tom Wheeler has rejected that idea and plans to move forward with his rule-making proposal next week.